Pages

June 8, 2011

Schadenfreude 111 (A Continuing Series)

The second part of Smoke & Mirrors shattered last night at Yankee Stadium and then David Ortiz dragged a shard of glass across the Yankees' throats.

During the first two months of the season, the Yankees hit the jackpot with Bartolo "Smoke" Colon and Freddy "Mirrors" Garcia, aging right-handers who exceeded every expectation by even the biggest Yankees supporter. ...

As Ortiz left the batter's box, he flipped his bat and it didn't go unnoticed.

"He took a long time getting out of the box and you never want someone to do that to you," catcher Russell Martin said. "It's up to us to do that back at them. ... He almost got hit by the [previous] pitch and kind of rubbed it in our faces."

Joe Girardi is no pacifist. He fumes when Yankee players get plunked, even when he knows it isn't intentional. So you kept thinking that somebody was going to pay for Mark Teixeira getting drilled in the knee ...

And when David Ortiz punctuated a moon-shot home run with a showy bat flip in the fifth inning in giving the Sox a 6-1 lead, well, I would have bet the ranch that fireworks were coming at some point.

I mean, I know everybody loves Big Papi, but he showed up a kid pitcher, Hector Noesi ...

This was an issue during the Joe Torre years, the Yankees never making Ortiz or the Red Sox pay for their transgressions. But Girardi is much more of a hard-liner than Torre.

David Ortiz' majestic bat flip ... didn't go over well with the Yankees manager.

"I didn't really care for it," Girardi said.

Ortiz couldn't care less about the criticism.

"It's not my first time. It's not going to be my last time. So, big deal. I'm a home run hitter. ... What can I tell you? ... I just went deep. It's another homer for Papi. That was one of the Papi good ones." ...

It's 2004 all over again. ... At some point, the Yankees are going to have to beat the Red Sox and they will have to solve their Gonzalez and Ortiz problem.

Even though the Red Sox got off to that dreadful 2-10 start they have bounced back. The Yankees might have to go into wild-card mode as October gets closer. Right now, the Rivalry belongs to the Red Sox ...

This time the Red Sox, who just look better than the Yankees right now, jumped them early at Yankee Stadium, came right back at them with more bad intentions. ...

The last time the two teams played ... the Red Sox were still under .500 and the Yankees could have dropped a safe on them with a sweep of their own. Didn't do it. This time when the Red Sox come in here, they are going good. Very good. Maybe good from now on. ...

One more negative on a long, negative night for the Yankees ... a game where it seemed the Yankees had been behind the Red Sox forever. ...

Garcia posted the shortest start by a Yankee not because of injury in more than two years [May 9, 2009] ... It was not the first time Garcia has been shelled by the Sox this season. On May 15, he was lit up for five runs (four earned) on six hits, two walks and two homers in 5.1 innings. In his two starts against Boston this season, he's 0-2 with a 10.29 ERA, allowing 15 baserunners via a hit or walk and giving up three homers.

Freddy Garcia could tell early on that it was going to be one of the longest short nights -- or was it one of the shortest long nights? -- of his career. ...

Bad night at the big yard for Garcia. Bad night in the big rivalry for the Yankees. ... Garcia was only around for five outs worth, by which time it was already 4-1, by which time you could already sense a buzz traveling around the ballpark. ...

This is June, and the Yankees are still in first place despite Garcia's session of live batting practice last night, and they are there in large part because the replacements in that elaborate scheme -- Garcia, Bartolo Colon, Ivan Nova -- have played up, some to an almost otherworldly degree. ...

The question, of course, is how legitimate the arms really are. ... June's rotation still has a few more questions. They have been camouflaged for most of the season. The Red Sox merely drew them out in the open last night. They will stay there awhile.

The Yankees' bad luck against the Red Sox continued Tuesday night, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. ...

The [Teixeira negative] X-ray results were the only encouraging developments for the Yankees ... The Yankees have lost all four games to the Red Sox at the Stadium this year - leaving them in a virtual tie for first place in the American League East.

13 comments:

Of Papelbon's 58 minor league games, 48 were starts. And he debuted with the Red Sox as a starting pitcher (July 31, August 16 and 21, 2005).

Sloppy writing by Ackert et al, but they're half right. Paps and Mo both briefly began their careers as starters (3 and 10 games, respectively). But Mo was a setup man for John Wetteland in 1996, before Wetteland left for Texas. Mo only pitched in the 9th in 14 of his 61 games in 1996. Paps pitched in the 9th in 54 of his 59 games in 2005. You can't get saves if you aren't pitching in the 9th (witness the stupidity of the stat).

Sloppy writing for sure. And the entire factoid is stupid because of (as you note) the inequality of the games as a "reliever". The save stat should go the way of the dodo asap, but presenting the accomplishment as "200 saves in the fewest save opportunities [i.e., 200 + blown saves]" would at least be using a measure of common sense.